Jack Hannahan’s Crazy April
If you go to the leaderboards here on the site, you’ll see a whole bunch of familiar names that you’d expect to see doing well, a couple of interesting guys having rebound seasons, and Jack Hannahan. The Indians third baseman is mixed in with the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Troy Tulowitzki, and he’s doing it in a surprising manner.
Hannahan has always been a terrific defensive third baseman so it’s no surprise that he’s racking up the fielding value again, leading all third baseman in UZR. Most of his value has come at the plate, however, and from the one area – power hitting – where he hasn’t traditionally shown much ability. Hannahan already has four home runs this year, as many as he hit in all of 2009 when he racked up 301 plate appearances for the A’s and Mariners.
But, that’s not the most surprising thing. Hannahan is strong enough that a four home run binge over the course of a few weeks isn’t all that weird. It’s an outlier, and it’s the kind of thing you come to expect from small sample sizes in April. What you don’t expect, however, is this.
That’s the Major League leaderboard for best results hitting off of left-handed pitchers. Troy Tulowitzki, the right-handed slugging shortstop for the Rockies, is head and shoulders above the rest, clocking in at a ridiculous .715 wOBA. Given his handedness and abilities, seeing Tulowitzki at the top of this list isn’t that surprising. But one spot behind him is Jack Hannahan, who hits from the left-hand side, and hasn’t traditionally been all that good at the plate. But there he is.
So far this year, Hannahan is hitting .529/.619/1.059 against LHBs, good for a .684 wOBA. Yes, it includes a ridiculous .700 BABIP, but Hannahan has also shown legitimate offensive skills against lefties – four of his nine hits have gone for extra bases and he has a 4/5 BB/K ratio in 21 plate appearances, which isn’t easy to do against same-handed pitching, even in a small sample size.
He’s obviously not going to keep this up, but looking through his career, it’s interesting to note that Hannahan has actually hit LHPs better than RHPs, posting a slight reverse platoon split. He has only 250 career plate appearances against southpaws, so we’re still dealing in small samples, but his core numbers don’t change much regardless of who is on the mound. It sets up an interesting – and somewhat unorthodox – option for the Indians.
Hannahan was essentially brought in to keep the seat warm for top prospect Lonnie Chisenhall, who is currently performing just okay in Triple-A. Chisenhall is clearly the future at third base for the Tribe, but he’s not quite Major League ready just yet. His biggest problem? Hitting left-handed pitching.
Chisenhall is hitting .351/.442/.541 against right-handers this year, but just .189/.262/.324 against left-handed pitching. His struggles are a common problem for young players who haven’t seen many southpaws during their career, and are still making adjustments to hit same-handed pitching. It’s still in the Indians best interests to keep Chisenhall in Triple-A and let him face as many southpaws as possible, but if Cleveland keeps winning and they want to put their best team on the field this summer, perhaps they should consider platooning Chisenhall and Hannahan, even though both are left-handed.
Hannahan’s glovework at third base makes him a viable role player even when he’s not hitting like Babe Ruth, and his success against left-handers would give the Indians a natural place to keep rolling him out there even after Chisenhall was called up. Against right-handed pitchers, they’d likely get an offensive upgrade, and they’d still have Hannahan as a late inning defensive replacement or pinch-hitter for Chisenhall if the opposing manager brought in a tough southpaw.
You don’t see that many L/L platoons, but given the Indians surprising start to the season and the respective skillsets of the two third best third baseman in the organization, perhaps the Indians should look into just that. It might be their best chance at keeping this division race interesting over the rest of the summer.
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For his career, Hannahan has a higher K%, lower BB%, and lower IsoP vs lefties. Considering the small sample size, isn’t there a good chance that Hannahan’s platoon splits are just the result of some BABIP luck?
Also: is it worth harming Chisenhall’s development (i.e., shielding him from lefties) for the possible marginal upgrade vs lefties? Maybe the Indians will be able to stick around for awhile because of their hot start, but there’s really no chance they’re serious contenders this year.
The differences aren’t significant. A .135 ISO vs .120? It’s the same thing.
I’ve seen much better dodges in my time.
FWIW, the Cubs started 2011 with one R/R platoon (2nd) and one L/L platoon (RF)
srsly? 21 PA? 6 of his PA came against Jeff Francis, Mark Buerhle, and Jason Vargas, who if you consult your own FG leaderboard see rank last, 2nd to last, and 5th from the bottom in FB velocity for LHP. Chuck in another PA each against fireballers Aaron Laffey and Dusty Hughes and you see that much of Hannahan’s success doesn’t stem from the fact that they’re LHP, but rather the fact that they throw quite slow (and if his career splits are real at all it’s probably because LHP throw him more offspeed stuff than RHB).
But far be it from FG to do a few minutes of more in depth research before putting out an article. Gotta get that post count up.
Yes, clearly the point of this article was that Hannahan’s level of success against LHPs is sustainable.
Hannahan’s BABIP (.308) is below average with decent ISO (.232) and BB% (10.4%). Peripherals would suggest, therefore, that his start isn’t too flukey – right?
His BABIP is actually above average (which is about .295). And that doesn’t account for the fact that he’s simply a weak hitter, and maybe *should* have a below-average BABIP.
IsoP doesn’t become meaningful until a full season of PA’s. His career MLB IsoP is .131 and his career minor league IsoP was .123. His HR/FB% is a definitely-flukey 20%.
His K% is much-improved, and that’s the stat that stabilizes quickest. So there’s that. But, even so, his ZiPS rest-of-season is just .225/.312/.357/.669.
All I have to say is GO JACK Hannahan! I love it when guys exceed expectations even if only for awhile!
as an A’s fan, I saw/heard quite a bit of hannahan for a stretch. this guy’s defense is fantastic, like longoria/beltre good. On the hitting side, he showed some pop and took a few walks, but mostly made outs – .218/.305/.342 over 500PA in 2008. He has a long swing and has trouble making contact.
I always wanted to love Jack when he was an A – the dude is insanely strong and a great defender. He’s one of those guys who when he hits a home run, it looks so natural and you can’t help but wonder why he doesn’t do it more often.
Unfortunately, my nickname for him – “Hannahan-Combat” – never took off.
that’s a great nickname
When did you coin the nickname?
As a Seattle Mariners fan, I remember hearing that nickname back in ’09 when he played there. It was used on the forum, sometimes. Good nickname!
Well, I can’t claim to have uniquely coined it. Someone else has likely come up with it independently. I started using it during his A’s days.
We call him Supermannahan here in Cleveland